THE N W YORKER 41 tity would be concealed, so that he could continue to work at his trade, we mentioned Bolling's enthusiastic en- dorselnent of Ford. The Inan sIniled, and said, "Of course, Bolling is very, very close to Carl Albert, and wants to do his bidding. Albert is scared silly that the Presidency Inight land on him, so he wants to see Ford's nOlnination con- firmed dS soon as possible." \'T L asked the lobbyist what he thought about Ford, and he replIed, "J erry IS quiet-spoken-he's rather a sweet pel son, actually-but he's a blunbler. He has very poor judgment, no grasp of the nation's problelns, and not the faintest idea of where we are going. Also, his record is appalling. Ac- cording to the A.F'.L.-C.I.O.'s tabula- tion, he voted wrong-that is, against the workinglnan's interests-ninety- four per Cen t of the tÏtne through last year. Only two other rnelnbers of the House had a more anti-labor record. He follows Nixon blindly, and Inouths the same cliches. For instance, Ford wIll rant on about quality education, like Nixon, and then will quietly try to gut education bills on Nixon's orders." \Ve asked if it wasn't Ford's duty as Minority Ledder to carry out his Presi- dent's policies, and the lobbvist frowned and said, "Only up to a point. Every- one is fond of saying that Ford is a man of integrity. \Vell, a man of integrity can't be a mere water carrier for the tealn. Take Congresslnan John i\.nderson, of Illinois, who is the leader of the House Republican Confer- ence, and who probably - stands Inore squarely for true Republicanisln than any other Inan in the House. \Vell, he stood up to the President on Caln- bodi'l, and was called a traitor to the Party. On the other hand, he led the fight for the Adlninistration's proposal that the highway trust fund be opened up to let SOIne of those billions be used for Inass transit- which was one of the few decent positions this Ad- ministration has taken on dOlnestic Inatters. He got no credit for that. And Ford, who opposed the Ad- ministration, for the first tune, on the trust-fund is- sue-because he's from the autolnobiIe state-and led Â' the fight against it, wasn't blamed at all. Apparently, it's all right to break with the Administration where YOUt con- stituents dre concerned, but if you break with it because your conscience is d ' 0" concerne , you re a traItor. A couple of Ininutes later, We got on the subject of what might be ex- pected of Ford if he succeeded to the Presidency, and the lobbyist said, "He will probably reverse Nixon's foreign policy and break off the Inove toward a détente. \i\Then Ford says, as he does, that he's a 'dyed-in-the-wool interna- tionalist,' he Intan<; that he's a dedicated Cold \\1 arrior. Last week, dUrIng the House RepublIcan caucus, Inembers were discussing the need for an inde- pendent special prosecutor and the need to Inake the tapes available not just to the court and the grand jury but to the public as well. Suddenly, Ford jumped up and charged in, talking about how vital it was to sustaIn President Nixon's Veto of the war-powers-IÜnitation bill. That was pure stupid water-carrying, because the Party is split one for one on that issue, so he antagonized half the Inelnbers. It also hurt him with the Ju- diciary COlnmlttee, which will hold hIS confirlnatlon hearings in the House, because it has beCOlne increasingly wor- ried and sensitive about the rights and independence of Congress. All in all, he couldn't have shown worse judg- Inent politically." Returning to what Ford Inight do as President, the Inan said, "On the dOlnestic front, Ford would probably continue Nixon's poli- cies, so in terlns of econolnics, social programs, unemployment, and so on, we'd contInue to flounder in the IneSS h " we ave now. In the course of the day, we visited a nUlnber of Republican congresslnen, and they stated, for the record, that F 1 " d " " 0 d o. " ore was ecent, never Vln Ictlve, " O bI " " f 1 " dcceSSI e, a sort 0 gent e person, " 1 "" ] " " 1 10nest,c 1 In, not one to po ar- . ] "" f 0 "" ff 0 "" h d Ize peope, aIr, e ectlve, ar - k . " d " 0 0 wor lng, an a ver) nIce, SOInetnnes even warm, fellow." But some of the saIne people described hÏtn, off the rec- d ". 0 0 "" d or , as unnnaglnatlve, a octnnalre 0"" . 0 conservatIve, an unwavenng partI- " d " . 11 h 0 san, an essentla y sue a negatIve person that he is sÏtnply Inore comfort- able voting no rather than yea." One of them, speaking off the record, said, "J erry is basically a decent Inan. He tries to be a good, Inoder dte hUlnan be- Ing-he exerCIses every day, he's nice to his wife and kids, he doesn't do any- thing extrelne. But he is not an adven- turous rnan \Vithin IÏtnits, a P residen t should be In tel- lectually adventurous. If he's not open to new ideas, new concepts, he Inay be unable to grasp the influ- ences that are Inoving and shaping the coun try, and get left behind." Another melnber of Congress, also speaking off the record, ob- served, "I see no evidence that Ford really undel- stands the dalnage that Nixon has done to the coun try . NIxon was de- termined to Inake the ex- ecutive No.1, and to sup- press the two other bl anches, in a way that hd never been attelnpted b L - fore in this country. I'ln sure that Ford wouldn't consciously carr) on that attelnpt, but I see no sign that he would try to Inake dlnends for what Nixon has done, or try to repair the dalnage. For Instdnce, the best thing he could do as President would be to ap- point a moderate Delno- crat-say, someone lIke Mike Mansfield-as Vice- President, in order to create a coalicion and bring the nation back together after -- "Why can't you watt for the six-o'clock news, like everybody else "